ProDiver Chronograph

Designed for Extremes

While the recreational diver would find as much appeal in the Oris ProDiver, this professional dive watch is the deep-water equivalent of heavy machinery. “In this world of diving, we’re not talking about pretty turquoise waters and dolphins — we’re talking about tough and uncompromising conditions in inhospitable waters,” Oris CEO Ulrich Herzog declares. In a hulking 51mm case, and its valve-shaped screw-down crown and pushers echoed in the moulded form of the vulcanized rubber bezel grip, this watch looks ready to roll with the undersea currents. Its titanium body, however, means it tips the scales at just 225g despite its size.

In developing this watch, Oris consulted professional divers — men who spend hours at a stretch in the depths of the open sea, or weeks even in undersea diving chambers, for reconnaissance, rescue and recovery, demolition or repair gigs. For these men, a watch needs to hold up to the rigorous demands of their work environment, and all features considered, it boils down to one thing: safety. After all, for them, a watch is much more than an accessory — it is the backup to electronic dive computers, for the old-fashioned manual monitoring of depth and time.

Features

The ProDiver sports highly pragmatic features: high visibility, firstly, with the large dial, white SuperLuminova on the hands and indices for bright and long-lasting luminescence underwater, and a scratch- and fade-resistant ceramic bezel. The watch’s black-and-white schematic is crucial to readability, as colours fade to grey and black as water filters off coloured light the deeper one goes.

For the requisite unidirectional rotating bezel, the ProDiver goes a step further with its patent-pending Rotation Safety System, wherein the inner timer scale can only be turned when the stainless-steel outer bezel is lifted upwards; the timer position relocks with satisfying mechanical click. The black rubber rib provides grip and protects the watch from knocks.

Water resistance to 1,000m is ensured by a screwed caseback, while the screw-down crown and pushers nestle into a black DLC-coated side safety barrier for protection from knocks. Moreover, an automatic, self-regulating helium valve protects the watch from damage during decompression for lengthy, deep dives.

Worn over a wetsuit, the watch’s sliding sledge clasp allows the strap to be easily tightened during the dive as the wetsuit compresses due to underwater pressure, so the watch doesn’t slip off the wrist.

Delivering reliability and an impressive slew of safety features — and doing it with style while at it — the Oris ProDiver is suited up and ready for the plunge alongside the pros as well as the weekend warriors of the deep.

Oris ProDiver Chronograph

Movement Automatic mechanical chronograph with date function
Case 51mm; titanium; water resistant to 1,000m
Strap Comes with both extendable rubber strap with folding safety clasp, and extendable titanium bracelet
Price S$5,100

Excerpted from an article by Grace Tay in REVOLUTION’s archives. 

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